A Fossil Bee from Early Cretaceous Burmese Amber

Bees are among the most important insectpollinators (1). The origin of bees, withtheir numerous morphological and behav-ioral adaptations for pollen collec-tion and transport (2), contributed to the rapid diversification of angiosperms in the Early to mid-Cretaceous (3). Understanding the role that bee pollination played in angiosperm diversifica-tion requires an accurate estimate of bee antiquity as well as an understanding of the early evolu-tionary history of bees. We report here fossil evi-dence of bees in the Early Cre-taceous. The fossil bears several derived features of bees as well as morphological structures (e.g., branched hairs) presumed to be associated with pollen collection. The specimen originated from an amber mine in the Hukawng Valley (26°20´N, 96°36´E), Kachin state, northernMyanmar (Burma). Palynomorphs obtained from the amber beds where the fossil originated have been assigned to the Upper Albian [~100 million years ago (Ma)] of the Early Cretaceous (4). The male holo-type is deposited in the Poinar amber collection (accession no. B-Hy-7) maintained at th